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If you work in manufacturing, the free fall of gasoline prices has, in many ways, been a blessing: Feedstock and transportation costs are down, and consumer confidence is swinging way up. But of course, not everyone has been rejoicing. No matter where you fall in this mix of hope and dread, the main question is: How long will it last?

Buoyed by a resurgent economy, holiday sales, cheap gasoline and low interest rates, Americans headed to car dealers in droves last month, pushing full-year sales to what's likely to be the highest level since 2006. Fiat Chrysler, Nissan and Honda all reported strong December and annual U.S. sales early Monday, with Nissan and Honda hitting record numbers for the year.

Energy companies that want to build a natural gas pipeline through several North Carolina counties plan to hold public meetings on the project this week in the state. The proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline would run 550 miles from West Virginia and Virginia before ending in North Carolina's Robeson County.

Harvest Natural Resources cancelled the $275 million sale of its remaining assets in Venezuela after failing to garner approval from country's beleaguered government. Venezuela holds a 60 percent stake in Petroandina, a subsidiary of the Houston oil and gas company.

Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. plunged by 35 last week to 1,840. The Houston firm said Monday in its weekly report that 1,499 rigs were exploring for oil and 340 for gas. One was listed as miscellaneous. A year ago 1,757 rigs were active.

CARBO Ceramics in Eufaula is expanding and adding 20 jobs, who will join 75 who already work for at the Eufaula plant. The company makes products and provides services for oilfield service companies and operators of natural gas and oil wells.

New York City could face more than 200 lawsuits over a gas explosion that leveled two buildings and killed eight people earlier this year. The explosion destroyed two five-story East Harlem apartment buildings and injured more than 60 people.

The chairman of the House Transportation Committee says passing a bill to pay for America's aging roads and bridges will be a top priority next year but is ruling out a gasoline tax hike or motorist user fees as the way to do it. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., has previously said a vehicle-miles-traveled tax should be considered.

Conventional oil producers are not the only ones affected by falling oil prices. The energy crisis has also hit shale production and green energy in the U.S., Marin Katusa, chief energy investment strategist from Casey Research told RT.

The United States is back, and ready to drive global growth in 2015. After long struggling to claw its way out of the Great Recession, the world's biggest economy is on an extended win streak that is edging it closer to full health. But the new year doesn't look quite so bright in other major countries.

A grassroots resistance movement has emerged to fight the introduction of fracking in the UK, and it appears to be gaining momentum throughout the country. Critics of the process argue that it contaminates groundwater and damages the environment and public health.

A Syrian official says two suicide attackers have targeted separate natural gas facilities in the central province of Homs, killing eight people. The state news agency SANA also reported the attacks, saying guards opened fire at the attackers as they drove toward the plants, forcing them to detonate their payloads before reaching their targets.

Like he did 82 times before, Sheldon Whitehouse stood on the Senate floor and preached the dangers of climate change. In his last speech before Congress adjourned, the senator warned that 2014 is on track to be the hottest year on record.

China said Friday that it would help Nepal develop its power industry to alleviate severe electricity outages that can last up to 12 hours a day in the Himalayan nation, where Beijing is trying to increase influence and investment.

For some, cheaper oil prices made long holiday trips possible. But for others whose bottom line is conneced to the oil industry, the decline is starting to take a toll. For people who's job depend on oil production, the talk is of layoffs and tough times ahead.

Alaska Gov. Bill Walker has signed an agreement with a Japanese energy company formally declaring a commitment to form a partnership in developing Alaska's liquefied natural gas market. Officials say Japanese prefectures have been considering LNG to replace nuclear energy following the shut down of the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Saudi Arabia's Oil Minister, Ali al-Naimi, tells John Defterios in an exclusive interview that his country is not conspiring to target U.S. and Russian oil producers by not cutting production. "I was the first minister to welcome the production of Shell Oil," he says.

Israel's antitrust authority said Tuesday it will challenge the ownership structure of the country's natural gas resources, a decision that could rattle an increasingly important industry. A conglomerate of companies including Texas-based Noble Energy has been developing Israel's offshore natural gas deposits.

City officials in the North Dakota oil patch say they are forging ahead with housing and infrastructure projects, despite an expected downturn in drilling in the next year. Watford City Mayor Brent Sanford said development and land sales are not slowing down because housing needs for permanent oil field workers have not been met, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

The Keystone Pipeline debate has been raging for years, but a new Senate makeup in 2015 could signal sweeping changes. On one hand, the Keystone pipeline project could greatly benefit the U.S. economy, and on the other, it could drastically harm the environment.

An explosion and fire early Friday morning killed two people and critically injured two others at an oil rig in southeastern Oklahoma. Authorities said the explosion occurred at the rig about 2 miles west of Coalgate in a remote area of rural Coal County about 100 miles southeast of Oklahoma City.

Lower oil prices are buoying Louisiana's fishermen, but putting the squeeze on others. The longer oil prices remain at their current levels, the deeper the job cuts could go. Manuel Bojorquez reports on the threat to jobs in the state's oil industry.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is getting heaped with praise by environmentalists and scorn by business interests for a planned state ban on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, even as he insists the decision wasn't his. Residents statewide remain almost evenly split on the issue.

Russia's suddenly escalating financial crisis risks spilling beyond its borders and endangering parts of the global economy. "Oil hasn't found a bottom yet, so the pain is only going to get worse as the price of oil continues to fall," said a chief market strategist.

Owned by Royal Dutch Shell, the 1,601-foot long ship is named the Prelude, and was built in South Korea, to be sent down off the coast of Western Australia, where it will be working as a floating liquefied natural gas facility. It has holding tanks big enough to store 175 Olympic-sized swimming pools of liquified natural gas.